WOMEN of K2: DEATH on the Mountain

k2 it's called the savage mountain and it's earned the name it's a colossus it invokes fear in me fewer than 200 climbers have made it up the world's second tallest mountain but over 50 have died trying for women only five have reached the summit of k2 all five are now dead who were these daring women and why did they all die in high altitude climbing accidents i think they have a deep need to compete with men in the next hour we'll explore why spanish climber araceli sagara would tempt fate on k2's deadly slopes i climb everest but uh k2 it's really different for me too it's more like a challenge it's more difficult it's more a dream and why a woman's presence in this male dominated sport is filled with controversy should a mother risk her life for the summit are women physically equal to men are female climbers driven to prove themselves by pushing past their limits for segara the question is simple will she summit k2 and survive the savage mountain [Music] so k2 the savage mountain is revered and feared by climbers the world over it's the mountaineers mountain once you have been in front of k2 it will never let you go it is arguably the most difficult climb in the world k2's extreme slopes pose a technical challenge to the most skilled climbers and its vicious weather is legendary storms erupt without warning scouring the slopes with a 100 mile per hour winds at 8 616 meters over 28 000 feet k2 stands second only to everest in height but it's second to none in difficulty and danger while everest has been climbed nearly 000 times only 196 climbers have stood atop k2 of this elite group only five were women and all five are dead three died on their descent of k2 and two one other eight thousand meter peaks this grim statistic leads some to say that for women climbers k2 carries a curse what kind of woman would want to challenge this legacy to become the sixth woman to scale k2 meet araceli sagara she's not what you'd expect araceli moves with ease between the wildly contrasting worlds of high altitude climbing and high fashion modeling her summit of the world's highest peak was captured in everest the mcgilvray freeman imax theater film during the mountain's worst tragedy in 1996 this year her already frenetic life in barcelona is in overdrive as she scrambles to raise money and enlist sponsors for her expedition to k2 k2 it's a very powerful mountain it's very attractive it's beautiful and i would really love to climb it if she is to become the sixth woman to reach the summit araceli and her climbing partner hector ponce de leon must be in top physical condition so i know there's been some women that died i don't make a distinction between women or men that die on this one time for me they were climbers hector ponce de leon of mexico has summited five of the world's 14 8 000 meter peaks and guided on many of them including everest he is the strongest climber i ever seen actor is a machine man not only are they a team in the mountains they are also a couple of them of course i do worry about araceli but not because i think this mountain has been particularly unfriendly to woman you know because this mountain has been unfriendly to everyone a man or a woman i will not be able to go to k2 if he is not there because i really need him to enjoy what i'm doing it's june 4th and all the preparations are finally over arisely and hector leave barcelona they are well aware of k2's legacy they've both seen friends die on its perilous slopes i've been to other eight thousand meter mountains i say none of them compares to k2 k2 has a special meaning too i mean it's a mountain where i lost a friend 10 years ago while trying to reach the summit they're beginning a 12 hour 4 000 mile journey that will bring them nearly halfway around the world and face to face with one of its most dangerous mountains now the real journey begins that will bring them to the foot of k2 [Music] the mountain lies at the far northern end of the great himalayan chain in the heart of the karakoram range [Music] you can't tell the story of this fearsome place without telling the stories of the five women who reached its summit the last woman to stand atop k2 did so almost 10 years ago her story defines the determination and sacrifice it takes to climb high peaks allison hargreaves of britain was the fifth woman to battle her way to the summit hargreaves accomplishments were world class she remains one of only two climbers to summit everest and k2 in a single summer both without supplemental oxygen that was quintessentially one of the most excellent pieces of high-altitude mountaineering that i have seen she was i think one of the best climbers that there's been ice and you seem to flow like water going uphill on the rock hargreaves followed her dream as a child to climb mountains and then her desire as an adult to become a mother she was determined to have both but it wasn't easy at times she felt incredibly guilty and incredibly torn she loved the mountains it was very clear she loved her kids too that was very clear peter hillary climbed with allison on k2 in 1995 although on separate teams they found they had something in common we had a satellite telephone and so we could ring home and we used to sort of share some really quite lovely little moments because like allison i had two kids a very similar age as her two children and we both missed them desperately she didn't know if she could even talk to them because it sort of broke her heart too much on the same day in 1995 both alison and peter hillary made their bid for the top of k2 but when the weather worsened hillary decided to turn back allison continued to push for the summit alison hargreaves the british climber who became the first woman to conquer everest without oxygen is tonight's missing feared dead on the world's second highest mountain k2 in pakistan alison did summit k2 that day but a violent storm enveloped the mountain it is believed that on descent 100 mile per hour winds swept alison and her team off the slopes when alison was killed on k2 the british press were just full of unbelievably hostile comments about allison being a mother and leaving two children it's today's story mother abandons children and killed on mountain easy easy easy fodder i think allison hargreaves had just much right to decline in k2 than any other man if you criticize allison you have to criticize us all the other guys that have died that left kids behind by saying that alison should not climb being pregnant or should not climb having babies you're judging somebody and you're judging somebody that you don't really know if women want to do things that are perceived by the blue collar workers or the average tabloid reader has been a man's world it's fine when it's going well but when anything goes wrong then then somebody has to be to blame and if you add to that then having young children it becomes almost a a cross that nobody should have to bear i think we've so many memories of her it's difficult to say a specific one you know [Music] today her children kate and tom live and climb with their father jim ballard in scotland this route sort of it reminds me of the great big himalayan faces which i'd hopefully one day go and do i think my mom would be proud if when i'm climbing even though i can't remember but i can always look at pictures of me being happy and with her and everything so how about a little message to your kids which we'll relay back to them over my two children someday maybe i want to have a family and i know that i will have to deal with having babies and climb a mountain i cannot say exactly what i will do but what i know for sure is that i will not stop going to the mountain for arizelli and her team the road to the mountain is a treacherous one k2 is renowned not only as one of the deadliest 8 000 meter peaks but is one of the hardest to get to the road ends at a skully the last village before the mountains here porters eager for the scarce work compete for the job of carrying the team's gear 60 kilometers up the glacier to base [Music] camp finally the team and 60 porters shoulder their loads for the eight day trek to k2 i don't really have deep answer for why i like to climb there's reasons no matter where i am that the mountains always call me back there's something that i get there that i cannot get anywhere else for aricelli the challenge lies ahead will she succeed in becoming the sixth woman to stand at the top of the savage mountain spanish climber aricelli sagara is taking on k2 the world's second highest peak [Music] well yes i climb everest but k2 is really different it's more a challenge it's more difficult it's really a dream arisaeli's dream is to rewrite the grim history of k2 only five women have stood at its summit all five died in the mountains now k2 lies ahead eight days on foot it's an arduous breathtaking trek araceli is following a trail first blazed by a remarkable woman over a hundred years ago american fanny bullock workmen defied victorian attitudes to become a world explorer in 1899 on her trek through the vast karakoram range she became the first woman to even get close to k2 it would be over 50 years later 1954 before the summit was reached by a team of italian men and it wouldn't be until 1975 that the first woman climber diane roberts set foot on the mountain i never had any ambitions for the summit on that mountain i wanted to go as high as i could go i wanted to support the summit team and i wanted to do the best job that i could of photography and i did all of those things finally in a single day in 1986 not one but two women would make history as they aimed for the summit of k2 both climbed without the aid of supplemental oxygen a testimony to their strengths and toughness in the lead van der routkevich of poland in the climbing world wanda was legend blonder fukovich was i think without any doubt the leading female himalayan climber not just of her generation that you know hasn't been surpassed yet part of her success came from a steel will that refused to give up even when it meant trekking into k2 with a fractured leg [Music] i remember reading about wanda gerwig's expedition vanda had a broken leg and she did all this hype five crutches to this day bretkevich remains the most accomplished female alpinist in history the only woman to summit eight eight thousand meter peaks wanda was actually one of my climbing heroes himalayan climbing heroes when wanda came to k2 20 years ago no woman has climbed that mountain before and some way she really was a pioneer for all of us that wanted to follow her finally at 10 15 on the morning of june 23rd 1986 vanda rutkevich made climbing history to become the first woman to reach the summit of k2 it was sheer ecstasy to be on the summit k2 has been my mountain of dreams for so many years [Music] sunrise one day out from base camp for the first time the clouds lift from k2 and aricelli can see her objective [Music] at last we see it it was hiding well two months in front of this thing on the same day wanda summitted k2 only one hour later her teammate liliane barrard of france became the second woman to stand at the top of the mountain lilian had already climbed two other 8 000 meter peaks becoming the first woman to summit the notorious nanga parbat but liliane was to make her mark on the history of k2 in a more tragic way the team spent the night just below the summit at 27 000 feet early the next morning with the weather deteriorating vonda began her descent lilian and her husband maurice lagged behind i myself had almost reached combat 25 000 feet when i couldn't help turning around again to look back at the summit way up there i saw lillian and maurice back in the bottleneck that really made me wonder why are they proceeding so slowly with all that long descending ahead of them at this point i had no way of knowing that this would be the last time i would see my friends they never returned lillian's body was found about a month later horribly smashed up right almost at the bottom of the mountain i'm not thinking about the history about the people that die or how dangerous the mountain is i'm just focused on the next step at the end of their eight-day 65-mile trek ariselli arrives at base camp thank you very much thank you at 5 000 meters 16 500 feet this hard barren place is also home to seven other teams from around the world including englishman henry todd and american christine boshkoff it's mid-june araceli and her team have eight weeks on their climbing permit a lot of hard dangerous work lies between them and the summit that the left one is a good scar right yeah right there is where we meet the aggressive reach instead of the more common abruzzi route arizelli will attempt to climb the more challenging south southeast bridge if she succeeds she will make history as the first woman to do so araceli's team will have to set up three high altitude camps on their route to the summit each one higher than the corresponding camp on the abruzzi if i'm trying just to think right now about the summit about the whole mountain i will not be able to deal with it i just have to see one step and then the next one and then the next one because if i try to see everything all at once i will think that i'm not able to do it the story of vander rutkevich's courage and pioneering spirit didn't end on k2 she went on to triumph over six more eight thousand meter peaks but the mountains exacted the final price in 1992 climbing kanchenjunga the world's third highest peak wanda took shelter against the extreme cold at 27 000 feet she was determined to stay on the mountain and to push for the summit the next day my instinct was telling me to tell her to come down but i had not the guts to tell her to come down because i respect her decision she was wanda she was the best woman climber and it was her own decision maybe that's the only thing she needed an excuse because she was so proud wanda rutkevich never returned from kanchenjunga as araceli begins her first forays up the mountain her challenge is not only the arduous and dangerous climb it is also to follow in wanda's footsteps without sharing her fate [Music] it's late june araceli's team has set base camp at 16 500 feet above them at 8 616 meters over 28 000 feet stands their goal the summit of k2 it's always good to to like stand on the route for the first time because when you get closer it actually doesn't look as it's not as deep as it looks from further now i was on one of the corridors of the gullies and i was touching the mountain i was like hey this is k2 arisely and hector make forays up the mountain fixing climbing ropes for their ascent to the high camps like araceli the third woman to summit k2 also climbed with a male partner british climber julie tullis discovered a passion for high altitude climbing late in life well we've been running a shop for a long time it was very very hard work then one day one of our customers came into the shop and said you look absolutely beaten why don't you come climbing with me and i she said could i go of course you can go julie's partner was mountaineering legend kurt deanberger the first person to climb an 8 000 meter peak in four different decades we had something in common both of us julie and i we were very careful they were an odd pair the burly deem burger next to the slight tulis but julie was in peak physical condition as she proved when she and deemberger summited broad peak k2's 8 000 meter neighbor in 1984. the british media followed her exploits with great interest what actually makes you do it julie i mean what makes someone like you put yourself through all that it's a very very difficult question but it's it's it's so good it's it's something one has to do like alison hargreaves julie combined motherhood with mountaineering it's just fun loving unpredictable she would just do things that just just to be crazy sometimes or just to do things that were a bit strange on august 4th 1986 with only four years of high altitude climbing experience julie made her bid for the summit of k2 dean berger was at her side towards the end for our for our second attempt to the summit julie decided that we should go another try give it another try and in this moment i was very happy that she had decided that i was not late and i knew how it all ended curtin julie made it to the summit julie tullis was now the third woman to stand atop k2 [Music] but as they began their descent julie fell dragging kurt with her hurt and exhausted they struggled down to 26 000 feet where a ferocious storm trapped them in the death zone for five days and nights on the third night julie tullis was found dead in her tent two days later deanberger made it out alive for me julie and k2 will always be linked together and whenever i see that mountain i think of julie of course [Music] why despite going through identical experiences on k2 did talis die and dean burger survive some would suggest that men with their greater strength have a physiological advantage over women at high altitude it appears to me from the record that women are not really capable of climbing eight thousand meter peaks without the power of men to support them dr colin grissom is an expert on human performance at extreme altitudes from a physical point of view the differences between men and women tend to balance each other out although there is great individual variation in general men have greater raw strength and women have greater muscle endurance at high altitude however there are other factors that tend to balance out the differences between men and women these other factors arise from the drastic drop in atmospheric pressure at higher elevations the summit of k2 is nearly as high as the cruising altitude of an airliner a human being taken from sea level straight to this height would be unconscious in minutes and dead soon after as you go higher there is less oxygen that you're breathing in there's less oxygen in your blood there's less oxygen that gets to tissue and cells and including brain cells as araceli and hector climb higher the key to their survival is their body's ability to acclimatize to the dangerously thin air to do this they climb during the day and return to lower altitudes to sleep mountaineers call it climb high sleep on hiking low and then coming down the base which is coming from camp we don't know yet we'll see tomorrow if we feel good or we are in a mood we will go a little bit up failure to acclimatize carries a deadly penalty edema the thin air at altitude induces a buildup of fluid in the climber's lungs and brain unless the victim descends immediately death is usually imminent past studies have shown that high altitude pulmonary edema is more common in men than in women however no study has specifically evaluated a reason for this dr grissom studies suggest that while both sexes trade off small physiological advantages women if anything enjoy a slight edge over men at high altitude yet as the story of julie tullis and kurt deanberger illustrates there seems to be a dramatic difference in the survival rates of men and women on k2 why julie died and kurt lived you know i think that has more to do with experience kurt dean berger was at that time already a seasoned himalayan veteran and had spent his whole life in the mountains and knew how to take care of himself in other words experience is is the main reason he survived and julie didn't she wasn't really a mountaineer as such and she went from not very much to a lot in a very short space of time well that's the way it seemed you gain experience by making mistakes and the mistakes may kill you before you get the experience you need to be an experienced mountaineer and you look at a certain situation and your intuition is actually an amazing assemblage of all of your experience and skill and and everything you've ever known and done and your your capacity to look at something and go i don't like that i'm going back it doesn't look that bad huh just worried that there's too much sun will be warm up there and julie thales achievements place her among a select group of mountaineers even as her death raises the question do some women climbers push themselves beyond their experience level it's not physical endurance what help you climb a mountain it's more the mental endurance and most of the time that mental endurance it comes by experience like being here surfering i was expecting a worse day and it's sunny enough let's hope stays like this until we make it to cap one let's see early july with five weeks remaining araceli and her team achieved the first triumph in their long campaign at 21 000 feet on the edge of a sheer drop to the glacier below they established their first high camp they spend the night on this precarious perch it's as high as camp two on the abruzzi route [Music] but k2 is notorious for the sudden savage turns of its weather without warning 60 mile-per-hour winds blow in forcing aricelli and hector 4500 feet down back to base camp and then on the south-southeast ridge tragedy strikes six high-altitude porters are hit by an avalanche do you see anybody going out today hector i don't i don't i just saw that two big avalanches coming down but when the snow settles only five men emerge alive the mountain has claimed the first victim of the climbing season a pakistani porter with another spanish team cher azman khan the death hits base camp hard i was sitting next to actor and i told them will you imagine that right now it's everybody here maybe in a couple of days somebody will be gone but as all climbers know if they are to overcome this loss it is imperative they return to the mountain well i think the most important thing about today is that we actually went and tried to climb because and we broke there was this biological barrier that nobody was able to break and touch for the first time after the accident the mountain yeah they must set a new approach on their route to skirt the avalanche path and with the clock ticking off the time left to summit and the constant threat of the ever-changing weather tensions on the mountain are rising [Music] they don't like that i go ahead of them so when i crossed past him he was just pushing my ass i guess they don't like a woman passing them it's so common nowadays to see these you know people walking into base camps as friends as and walking out of there as enemies even now almost 30 years after the first woman set a boot on k2 the climbing world continues to be divided about the presence of women on expeditions women definitely affect the group dynamics of an expedition if you have an all-male expedition [Music] you get strong male bonding and brotherly love and it's more it feels more fun and more safe i don't know why women disturb men so much but they do a climbing expedition or war or something like that is is a situation that gives men permission to form the intimate kinds of friendships and the close lifelong friendships that women have anyway when diane roberts joined her husband jim whitaker on two expeditions in the 1970s she opened the door for women climbers on k2 and paid the price the resulting tensions nearly destroyed the expeditions some of the other guys on the expedition didn't think that i should be there and jim would just kind of write it off as jealousy whitaker still has no regrets about including his young bride on the team i had second thoughts about having brought the guys that were objecting but i it was too late then to send him back home so we just had to live with it looking back on it it's just almost a miracle that we pulled it off we were as a team split right down the middle uh split by difficulties that were introduced and caused by that fact that we had both men and women on our team i choose the people i want to climb with just being surrounded by friends that they don't care if you're a woman or you're a man in many ways the fourth woman to summit k2 embodied the conflicting passions aroused by women in high altitude climbing for chantal modui of france climbing was a deep and abiding passion she was deeply involved with the mountains not with the sport she was in a real spiritual quest [Music] for her it was more than climbing and for us it was more than coming it was a window to another form of life [Music] chantal did what very few climbers ever have summit k2 first before any other 8 000 meter peak but her success on k2 was clouded by her collapse on dissent and her reliance on men to get her down alive chantal wouldn't have got down without me for sure i don't believe she would have made it i don't know how she could have she was snow blind and barely ambulatory she would have had to crawl down the mountain snow blind to this day the men who climbed with chantal have contrasting memories of the woman and the climber she knew what she was doing she was technically uh accurate she was a mountain climber i climbed with chantal because i was in love with chantal not because i thought she was safe yet chantal's accomplishments are undeniable after k2 she went on to summit five of the eight thousand meter peaks one of only four women ever to do so she also maintained a strict climbing ethic never using supplemental oxygen because she knew that if she had breathed oxygen once there'd be always someone jealous to reapproach that she would have been the end of her career there's so many people waiting for that for chantal the end came in 1998 six years after she climbed k2 on dalagiri in nepal at 21 000 feet an avalanche engulfed camp 2 killing chantal and her partner it was at the same time a shock but not not a complete a surprise but not a complete surprise it was a short life but she lives 34 years but in 34 years she did more than most people do in 100 years what do you expect me to say you want me to tell you in front of the camera i was expecting her to die yes she couldn't really draw a line between her life and something more she was looking for something more and she probably didn't know where to stop with chantal's death k2's legacy had been sealed every woman who had summoned the mountain was now dead as aricelli pushes past camp 1 on the way to her next high camp she will need all her experience and endurance to challenge this legacy [Music] it's nearly the end of july and aristelle and hector continue their push-up k2 at 22 000 feet above camp 1 they set new climbing ropes to avoid clipping onto old weather-batted ropes from previous expeditions again k2's weather takes a sudden vicious turn we don't need go ahead with this weather let's drive with good weather with a new road no is a problem if we knew all this is wrong from last year they're forced back to base camp a descent of over 5000 feet please take it slowly clip on every rope i'm not leaving because i still have a little bit of hope that the weather can change i will wait and if the team still has motivation to keep going we'll go and once again in the wake of the violent weather a climber is lost pakistan army captain mohammed iqbal liaison to the chinese tibet pakistan team is rappelling down the abruzzi route when a rope breaks he falls five thousand feet to his death [Music] [Music] area i'm not going to say that i don't care if i die of course i care i'm more worried for the family for the friends that will feel sorry or will be sad at home more than for me for many at base camp this is the final blow for them the climbing season is over araceli's friend and teammate armando dettoli is among them this is i come here for enjoy to to know the place to know k2 but i don't want to take any risk i have people who love me in my house for henry todd's team it is also the end sometimes you can feel you're on a losing run and you want to get out before you lose all your money of the eight teams that came to k2 this season not a single climber has made it to the summit as the captain's body makes its last trip off the mountain seven of the eight teams also head for home and of the eighth team only araceli and hector remain almost two months on the mountain have taken their toll on body and spirit but araceli is not ready to surrender situation right now is desperate if we are realistic we have not too many chance to climb this route without team support but i don't know maybe we are waiting for a miracle it's the same decision that alison hargreaves made in 1995 and julie tullis nine years before her they too stayed for one last chance at the mountain one final push for the summit this is a situation which will be well understood by most of the mountaineers you are very close to the top and you say now or never and you try it julie tullis and alison hargreaves both made it to the summit of k2 but neither came home to her family i guess i had it in the back of my mind all the time that i knew it could it could happen that she could get killed there was no point in crying and there was no point in being sad because she was doing what she wanted to do then araceli gets the miracle she's been hoping for the weather takes another turn this time for the better the sky is clear a window of opportunity is open but for how long araceli and hector decide on a daring plan they will make an accelerated push climbing fast and light [Music] at 1 30 in the morning august 10th they set out on their final bid for the summit of k2 climbers are people who like to push and push hard you know you just don't get to the summit of everest or k2 unless you're pushy but if you're a bit too pushy you don't come home in two days of agonizing effort they climb 7 500 feet yeah this section is a little bit tricky huh finally on august 11th they reached the spot they've chosen for camp 2 they're at nearly 24 000 feet from here the plan is to head for the shoulder and then to the summit in the morning but as so many times before the weather cannot be trusted the wind kicks up and a storm begins to build this is the way death comes to k2 i have an absolute horror of being caught in a storm on a high altitude mount i think the weather's going bad everything's terrible get down finally araceli and hector are left with no choice they must retreat to lower altitudes before the storm overtakes them but starting the climb down is no guarantee of safety of all the 8 000 meter peaks k2 is by far the deadliest on descent it was on dissent that liliane barrard alison hargreaves and julie tullis all lost their lives going down in the part which is more dangerous every five minutes i'm looking back just or three minutes looking back if something is coming down on the 12th of august araceli and hector descend to base camp for the last time for this season the summit of k2 will be visited by no one male or female i don't want to give up yet i know the weather is bad and probably is not going to change but i want to think it will i actually wanted to keep going she still i want to climb but we talked about it she respect my my decision my call and we decided to go down she wasn't very happy about it i know i could do more on this one time and i can do more on this route but nobody let me i mean the weather didn't let us so it's like the expedition is over but one final ritual remains before araceli and hector can leave k2 in 1997 a team of japanese climbers lost their lives in a gigantic avalanche this year their remains were finally found two surviving members of their expedition have journeyed from japan for a cremation ceremony for aricelli it is another reminder of the fine line between life and death on k2 that's such a beautiful place to die we are going to die we cannot avoid that but it is also a reminder of the five women in whose footsteps she follows alison hargreaves vonda rudkiewicz lillian barrard julie tullis chantal modui they all paid the ultimate price but it is a price every mountaineer understands you never feel truly alive until you are close to that edge of death and the closer you get to that edge the more alive you feel for aricelli these five brave women inspire her to keep reaching higher while also teaching her what it takes to live to climb another day every time i'm going to a mountain i try to find out why i'm coming here at the end there's always a reason that it's inside of you and it's a reason that i cannot explain i have not words for something like that sometimes it's like being in love you are and you cannot tell why the climbing season is over but there will be others and for araceli sagara and women climbers like her there will be other chances to meet the challenge of k2 and to someday rewrite its deadly [Music] history you

Channel: David Snow

Views: 343,596

Keywords: k2 documentary, k2 climb, k2 climbing, k2 movie, k2 everest, k2 harder than everest, k2 mountaineering, k2 videos, k2 summit videos, k2 higher than everest, k2 hiking, himalayan hiking, everest base camp, k2 sherpas, k2 deaths, k2 films, k2 movies, k2 climbing documentary, k2 summiting, women of k2, women dying on k2, k2 women deaths, first woman k2, k2 women climbing club, k2, climbing, mountaineering

Id: piHScRHoA6c

Length: 47min 9sec (2829 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 19 2021